Groups protest against marketers selling petrol above N87

Members of some civil society groups marched
through major highways in Abuja on Thursday to
protest the refusal of some petroleum product
marketers to sell petrol at N87 per litre as
announced by the Federal Government on Sunday.
The protesters, armed with placards bearing
various inscriptions, started their protest at the
Unity Fountain and marched to the Presidential
Villa Gate before heading towards the headquarters
of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on
Herbert Macaulay Way in the Central Business
District of the Federal Capital Territory.
The spokesperson of the groups, who is also the
Executive Director, Conscience Nigeria, Mr. Tosin
Adeyanju, told Journalists at the Villa gate that the
fact that the marketers decided to create artificial
scarcity of the product showed that they were not
happy with the new price regime.
He lamented that Nigerians, who were supposed to
be enjoying the reduction in the price of fuel, were
now wasting quality time at filling stations, while
those who could not afford to queue for hours
ended up buying the product from hawkers above
the regulated price.
Adeyanju said, “At this time, we call on the
Department of Petroleum Resources and the
Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to
immediately swing into action and make sure that
all filling stations comply with the directive.
“We even need a presidential directive to the two
agencies to seal off any filling station that is
hoarding fuel or fails to sell at the new price.”
He said as representatives of over 20 civil society
groups, it was their belief that President Goodluck
Jonathan had done the right thing by reducing the
pump price of petrol but that some cabals were
interested in making Nigerians to suffer without just
cause.
“We believe that the pump price of fuel should still
be further reduced in line with the fall of oil prices
in the international market. We are, therefore,
advocating further downward review of the price of
fuel in subsequent months,” Adeyanju said.